When Diablo 3 released it was an infamous game, one that was
loved widely by critics, yet despised for multiple reasons: late game imbalance
(which those critics likely didn't see), the auction house diluting loot gain,
not enough content to keep grinding, and just the issues with online-only. So much so that competing games of its ilk
like Torchlight 2 and Path of Exile were able to gain real traction off of it,
as people proclaimed them as the real continuation of the fun, the series
initially began with. Worse still, the
console version of Diablo 3 itself, unburdened by the inability to implement
the auction house, became to many the "superior version" of this venerated PC
franchise.

What I've noticed though in the almost 2 years since Diablo
3 first released, is how much the game has changed fundamentally, and for the
better, due to patching. People are
quick to look at patching as a crutch for lazy designers, especially console
players who have only had to deal with it since the 360 first launched. While there are cases where it does excuse lazy or unfinished design, the
fact remains patching allows devs to respond to feedback, and fix issues even the devs couldn't predict until a large user base has at it.
I'm happy to report Diablo 3 is one of those games that doesn't just
benefit from patching, but might be saved by it.

On the night of the 2.0.1 patch before going to sleep, I got
to play about an hour of Diablo 3 with a mystical Witch Doctor known as General
McFist. A lot of why I logged on was
curiosity over the large 2.0.1 patch that bridges into the soon to be released
expansion, and the other was because Mcfist was telling me this patch made the
game amazing. I was skeptical going in of
course…yet within about 20-30 mins I was right there on the bandwagon
smiling. While the auction house still
has a few precious weeks of existence before extinction, the new "Loot 2.0" has
been released, and I can safely say IT WORKS!
Within that one hour, I replaced over half my gear, gained 1/3 more
health, and my damage per second literally doubled.

This is the same piece of loot, with the one on the left pre-patch, and on the right post-patch.

Heck, I found a legendary within the first half hour, and
got an achievement since it was the first one I equipped…because it actually
was GOOD for my class. The new
difficulty settings made fights feel nicely balanced, with enemies scaling to
your level by default, and you add to their power through 5 different
difficulty levels (with 5 more scaling Torment difficulties for those that can't get enough at high level). Adventure mode and
the new Paragon system look to give fans who want more after maxing out a
character. Even little changes like
dumping tomes for jewelcrafting/artisan upgrades, potions now reduced to one
type that heals a flat 60%, UI changes everywhere, and even new runes for
skills.

Whole new cleaner UI with the adventure mode and new difficulty levels.

In that fairly short experience,
I felt like I was playing a different game, the version I wanted from the
beginning, all thanks to patching being available. Blizzard, if anything as a company, is never one to just
shove their product out, and leave it.
All of their major franchises, undergo tons of iteration and polish time
to better fine-tune the experience, or add in features that make the experience
largely better after release. Even their
expansions feed into this idea, not only adding in new content, but largely
making the core play better. Starcraft did
not become the sensation we know and love without Brood War, and the game
Diablo 2 fans know and love was broken in many ways before Lords of
Destruction. With the coming of Reaper
of Souls, this trend looks to continue, and I'm actually eager to dive back in.